Tetanus toxin production is triggered by the transition from amino acid consumption to peptides.

Bacteria produce some of the most potent biomolecules known, of which many cause serious diseases such as tetanus. For prevention, billions of people and countless animals are immunised with the highly effective vaccine, industrially produced by large-scale fermentation. However, toxin production is often hampered by low yields and batch-to-batch variability. Improved productivity has been constrained by a lack of understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling toxin production. Here we have developed a reproducible experimental framework for screening phenotypic determinants in Clostridium tetani under a process that mimics an industrial setting. We show that amino acid depletion induces production of the tetanus toxin. Using time-course transcriptomics and extracellular metabolomics to generate a 'fermentation atlas' that ascribe growth behaviour, nutrient consumption and gene expression to the fermentation phases, we found a subset of preferred amino acids. Exponential growth is characterised by the consumption of those amino acids followed by a slower exponential growth phase where peptides are consumed, and toxin is produced. The results aim at assisting in fermentation medium design towards the improvement of vaccine production yields and reproducibility. In conclusion, our work not only provides deep fermentation dynamics but represents the foundation for bioprocess design based on C. tetani physiological behaviour under industrial settings.

Production of the short peptide surfactant DAMP4 from glucose or sucrose in high cell density cultures of Escherichia coli BL21(DE3).

BACKGROUND: Peptides are increasingly used in industry as highly functional materials. Bacterial production of recombinant peptides has the potential to provide large amounts of renewable and low cost peptides, however, achieving high product titers from Chemically Defined Media (CDM) supplemented with simple sugars remains challenging. RESULTS: In this work, the short peptide surfactant, DAMP4, was used as a model peptide to investigate production in Escherichia coli BL21(DE3), a classical strain used for protein production. Under the same fermentation conditions, switching production of DAMP4 from rich complex media to CDM resulted in a reduction in yield that could be attributed to the reduction in final cell density more so than a significant reduction in specific productivity. To maximize product titer, cell density at induction was maximized using a fed-batch approach. In fed-batch DAMP4 product titer increased 9-fold compared to batch, while maintaining 60% specific productivity. Under the fed-batch conditions, the final product titer of DAMP4 reached more than 7 g/L which is the highest titer of DAMP4 reported to date. To investigate production from sucrose, sucrose metabolism was engineered into BL21(DE3) using a simple plasmid approach. Using this strain, growth and DAMP4 production characteristics obtained from CDM supplemented with sucrose were similar to those obtained when culturing the parent strain on CDM supplemented with glucose. CONCLUSIONS: Production of a model peptide was increased to several grams per liter using a CDM medium with either glucose or sucrose feedstock. It is hoped that this work will contribute cost reduction for production of designer peptide surfactants to facilitate their commercial application.

Insight into hyaluronic acid molecular weight control.

Hyaluronic acid (HA) is a ubiquitous polysaccharide found in humans, animals, bacteria, algae and molluscs. Simple yet sophisticated, HA demonstrates unique and valuable rheological properties. In solution, HA behaves as a stiffened random coil and the resultant behaviour, even at low concentrations, is far from Newtonian or 'ideal'. These rheological properties are heavily influenced by molecular weight (MW), so it is not surprising that many of the biological functions of HA are dependent on molecular size. The current billion dollar market for HA continues to grow rapidly, both in gross production and the number of applications for its use. Increasing demand, in conjunction with a reticence to use animal-derived HA, has revitalised the market for HA produced by bacterial fermentation. Although the genes and pathways involved in bacterial production of HA are well characterised, the mechanisms that underlie HA MW control are less well understood. By performing a thorough analysis of the proposed mechanisms of MW control in bacterial fermentation, this mini-review tries to elucidate the challenges and future directions for bacterial HA biosynthesis.

Pasteurella multocida Heddleston serovar 3 and 4 strains share a common lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis locus but display both inter- and intrastrain lipopolysaccharide heterogeneity.

Pasteurella multocida is a Gram-negative multispecies pathogen and the causative agent of fowl cholera, a serious disease of poultry which can present in both acute and chronic forms. The major outer membrane component lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is both an important virulence factor and a major immunogen. Our previous studies determined the LPS structures expressed by different P. multocida strains and revealed that a number of strains belonging to different serovars contain the same LPS biosynthesis locus but express different LPS structures due to mutations within glycosyltransferase genes. In this study, we report the full LPS structure of the serovar 4 type strain, P1662, and reveal that it shares the same LPS outer core biosynthesis locus, L3, with the serovar 3 strains P1059 and Pm70. Using directed mutagenesis, the role of each glycosyltransferase gene in LPS outer core assembly was determined. LPS structural analysis of 23 Australian field isolates that contain the L3 locus revealed that at least six different LPS outer core structures can be produced as a result of mutations within the LPS glycosyltransferase genes. Moreover, some field isolates produce multiple but related LPS glycoforms simultaneously, and three LPS outer core structures are remarkably similar to the globo series of vertebrate glycosphingolipids. Our in-depth analysis showing the genetics and full range of P. multocida lipopolysaccharide structures will facilitate the improvement of typing systems and the prediction of the protective efficacy of vaccines.

Saccharopolyspora erythraea's genome is organised in high-order transcriptional regions mediated by targeted degradation at the metabolic switch.

BACKGROUND: Actinobacteria form a major bacterial phylum that includes numerous human pathogens. Actinobacteria are primary contributors to carbon cycling and also represent a primary source of industrial high value products such as antibiotics and biopesticides. Consistent with other members of the actinobacterial phylum, Saccharopolyspora erythraea undergo a transitional switch. This switch is characterized by numerous metabolic and morphological changes. RESULTS: We performed RNA sequencing to analyze the transcriptional changes that occur during growth of Saccharopolyspora erythraea in batch culture. By sequencing RNA across the fermentation time course, at a mean coverage of 4000X, we found the vast majority of genes to be prominently expressed, showing that we attained close to saturating sequencing coverage of the transcriptome. During the metabolic switch, global changes in gene expression influence the metabolic machinery of Saccharopolyspora erythraea, resetting an entirely novel gene expression program. After the switch, global changes include the broad repression of half the genes regulated by complex transcriptional mechanisms. Paralogous transposon clusters, delineate these transcriptional programs. The new transcriptional program is orchestrated by a bottleneck event during which mRNA levels are severely restricted by targeted mRNA degradation. CONCLUSIONS: Our results, which attained close to saturating sequencing coverage of the transcriptome, revealed unanticipated transcriptional complexity with almost one third of transcriptional content originating from un-annotated sequences. We showed that the metabolic switch is a sophisticated mechanism of transcriptional regulation capable of resetting and re-synchronizing gene expression programs at extraordinary speed and scale.

Knock-in/Knock-out (KIKO) vectors for rapid integration of large DNA sequences, including whole metabolic pathways, onto the Escherichia coli chromosome at well-characterised loci.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic engineering projects often require integration of multiple genes in order to control the desired phenotype. However, this often requires iterative rounds of engineering because many current insertion approaches are limited by the size of the DNA that can be transferred onto the chromosome. Consequently, construction of highly engineered strains is very time-consuming. A lack of well-characterised insertion loci is also problematic. RESULTS: A series of knock-in/knock-out (KIKO) vectors was constructed for integration of large DNA sequences onto the E. coli chromosome at well-defined loci. The KIKO plasmids target three nonessential genes/operons as insertion sites: arsB (an arsenite transporter); lacZ (ß-galactosidase); and rbsA-rbsR (a ribose metabolism operon). Two homologous 'arms' target each insertion locus; insertion is mediated by λ Red recombinase through these arms. Between the arms is a multiple cloning site for the introduction of exogenous sequences and an antibiotic resistance marker (either chloramphenicol or kanamycin) for selection of positive recombinants. The resistance marker can subsequently be removed by flippase-mediated recombination. The insertion cassette is flanked by hairpin loops to isolate it from the effects of external transcription at the integration locus. To characterize each target locus, a xylanase reporter gene (xynA) was integrated onto the chromosomes of E. coli strains W and K-12 using the KIKO vectors. Expression levels varied between loci, with the arsB locus consistently showing the highest level of expression. To demonstrate the simultaneous use of all three loci in one strain, xynA, green fluorescent protein (gfp) and a sucrose catabolic operon (cscAKB) were introduced into lacZ, arsB and rbsAR respectively, and shown to be functional. CONCLUSIONS: The KIKO plasmids are a useful tool for efficient integration of large DNA fragments (including multiple genes and pathways) into E. coli. Chromosomal insertion provides stable expression without the need for continuous antibiotic selection. Three non-essential loci have been characterised as insertion loci; combinatorial insertion at all three loci can be performed in one strain. The largest insertion at a single site described here was 5.4 kb; we have used this method in other studies to insert a total of 7.3 kb at one locus and 11.3 kb across two loci. These vectors are particularly useful for integration of multigene cassettes for metabolic engineering applications.

Fis is essential for capsule production in Pasteurella multocida and regulates expression of other important virulence factors.

P. multocida is the causative agent of a wide range of diseases of animals, including fowl cholera in poultry and wild birds. Fowl cholera isolates of P. multocida generally express a capsular polysaccharide composed of hyaluronic acid. There have been reports of spontaneous capsule loss in P. multocida, but the mechanism by which this occurs has not been determined. In this study, we identified three independent strains that had spontaneously lost the ability to produce capsular polysaccharide. Quantitative RT-PCR showed that these strains had significantly reduced transcription of the capsule biosynthetic genes, but DNA sequence analysis identified no mutations within the capsule biosynthetic locus. However, whole-genome sequencing of paired capsulated and acapsular strains identified a single point mutation within the fis gene in the acapsular strain. Sequencing of fis from two independently derived spontaneous acapsular strains showed that each contained a mutation within fis. Complementation of these strains with an intact copy of fis, predicted to encode a transcriptional regulator, returned capsule expression to all strains. Therefore, expression of a functional Fis protein is essential for capsule expression in P. multocida. DNA microarray analysis of one of the spontaneous fis mutants identified approximately 30 genes as down-regulated in the mutant, including pfhB_2, which encodes a filamentous hemagglutinin, a known P. multocida virulence factor, and plpE, which encodes the cross protective surface antigen PlpE. Therefore these experiments define for the first time a mechanism for spontaneous capsule loss in P. multocida and identify Fis as a critical regulator of capsule expression. Furthermore, Fis is involved in the regulation of a range of other P. multocida genes including important virulence factors.

The putative coupling protein TcpA interacts with other pCW3-encoded proteins to form an essential part of the conjugation complex.

Conjugative plasmids encode antibiotic resistance determinants or toxin genes in the anaerobic pathogen Clostridium perfringens. The paradigm conjugative plasmid in this bacterium is pCW3, a 47-kb tetracycline resistance plasmid that encodes the unique tcp transfer locus. The tcp locus consists of 11 genes, intP and tcpA-tcpJ, at least three of which, tcpA, tcpF, and tcpH, are essential for the conjugative transfer of pCW3. In this study we examined protein-protein interactions involving TcpA, the putative coupling protein. Use of a bacterial two-hybrid system identified interactions between TcpA and TcpC, TcpG, and TcpH. This analysis also demonstrated TcpA, TcpC, and TcpG self-interactions, which were confirmed by chemical cross-linking studies. Examination of a series of deletion and site-directed derivatives of TcpA identified the domains and motifs required for these interactions. Based on these results, we have constructed a model for this unique conjugative transfer apparatus.

The trehalose phosphotransferase system (PTS) in E. coli W can transport low levels of sucrose that are sufficient to facilitate induction of the csc sucrose catabolism operon.

Plasticity in substrate acceptance is a well-characterised phenomenon for disaccharide transporters. Sucrose, a non-reducing disaccharide, is usually metabolised via either the permease-mediated chromosomally-encoded sucrose catabolism (csc) regulon or the sucrose phosphotransferase system (PTS). E. coli W is a fast-growing strain which efficiently utilises sucrose at concentrations above 1% via the csc regulon. To examine if sucrose could be metabolised via other routes, a library of transposon mutants was generated and screened on 0.2% sucrose. One mutant identified from this library had an insertion in the repressor for the regulon controlling catabolism of the disaccharide trehalose (treR). A series of mutants was constructed to elucidate the mechanism of sucrose utilization in the treR insertion strain. Analysis of these mutants provided evidence that deletion of TreR enables uptake of sucrose via TreB, an enzyme II protein required for PTS-mediated uptake of trehalose. Once inside the cell, this sucrose is not processed by the TreC hydrolase, nor is it sufficient for growth of the strain. QRT-PCR analysis showed that levels of cscA (invertase) transcript increased in the WΔtreR mutant relative to the wild-type strain when grown under low sucrose conditions. This result suggests that the intracellular sucrose provided by TreB can facilitate de-repression of the csc regulon, leading to increased gene expression, sucrose uptake and sucrose utilization in the treR mutant.

The role of hyaluronic acid precursor concentrations in molecular weight control in Streptococcus zooepidemicus.

The biosynthetic pathway responsible for the production of hyaluronic acid (HA) has been thoroughly studied; however, many aspects remain elusive regarding the mechanisms that control molecular weight (MW). Previously, we demonstrated a positive correlation between MW and the concentration of the HA precursor sugar UDP-N acetylglucosamine (UDP-GlcNAc). To further investigate the role of UDP-GlcNAc in MW control, we increased the intracellular concentration of this monomer using both feeding strategies and genetic engineering approaches. Feeding cells glucosamine dramatically increased intracellular levels of UDP-GlcNAc, but unexpectedly, produced HA of a lower MW. This was subsequently attributed to an equally dramatic decrease in the level of the other HA precursor sugar UDP-glucuronic acid (UDP-GlcUA). Feeding cells a mixture of glucose and GlcNAc addressed this imbalance of precursor sugars, leading to an increase in both UDP-GlcNAc and UDP-GlcUA; however, no significant increase in MW was observed. Despite the increase in UDP-sugars, RNA sequencing identified no increase in the expression of the genes involved in production of HA. Returning to genetic engineering approaches to examine UDP-GlcNAc and MW, genes known to contribute to the production of UDP-GlcNAc were over-expressed, both individually and together. Using this approach, UDP-GlcNAc and MW increased. At lower levels of UDP-GlcNAc, the positive correlation between UDP-GlcNAc levels and MW was maintained, however this relationship stalled at higher concentrations of UDP-GlcNAc. Taken together, these results suggest that while optimising HA precursor levels using feeding or genetic engineering approaches can improve HA MW, there is a point at which excess availability of precursors is no longer advantageous. Once precursor concentrations are addressed, it would seem that other uncharacterised factor(s) (e.g. rate of HA synthesis) also contribute to HA MW control.